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All agreed that this term, marked by Mayor
’s bulldozer start, then loss of council control and finally descent into drug scandal, was like none before.

“I think of it as ‘Ford Chaos Items 1 through 50’,” says Colle, a rookie centrist. “I can’t even remember them all — my Stockholm syndrome has fully set in and I don’t even know what normal is any more.”

Minnan-Wong, a 20-year veteran who supports Ford’s cost-cutting agenda, and was among the last to renounce him, says: “It certainly is a low point — I have never seen anything like this and hopefully never will again.”

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And yet.

All say councillors managed to do some remarkable work to improve the lives of Torontonians, fully knowing that Torontonians view this period only as a dysfunctional circus.

Don Cherry’s
left-baiting speech
at council’s investiture set the divisive tone, but, fresh off his landslide win, the new mayor easily got majority support at the
first council meeting
on the vehicle registration tax, TTC as essential service and councillor office expense budgets. His run continued, including a
mass turnover of the TCHC board
and firing of two executives that Fletcher calls “frightening.”

“He was all-powerful Oz and when they (later) pulled back the curtain he was just there with a large microphone and a machine making himself look big,” she says.

For Minnan-Wong, this was a golden period that also saw the expansion of private trash pickup and historic labour agreements. “We put the puck in the net ... There was a pretty strong base of support for the agenda because we could keep the coalition together and get the votes on any given issue.”

LOOSENING GRIP

The Toronto Port Lands are seen in this Sept. 12, 2012 file photo. (Randy Risling/Toronto Star)

Most point to Councillor Doug Ford’s
bid to seize control of the Port Lands
from Waterfront Toronto as the mayor’s first real loss. Amid a public uprising against the Fords’ monorail vision, Robinson became the first executive committee member to say she would vote against it.

“It was terrifying, absolutely terrifying, to make that break and step out, but my kids were going to inherit that waterfront so I wanted to do the right thing by it,” Robinson says. She survived; Fletcher and others worked out a solution; the Fords retreated.

This chapter marked the start of what all except Minnan-Wong say has been unprecedented public interest in protecting city services.

“It is stunning how aware people are of what happens at city hall,” including policy details, Colle says.

The city hired KPMG to review city services, triggering around-the-clock executive committee consultations. Anika Tabovaradan, 14, of Scarborough cried her eyes out at 2 a.m. defending her local library. In calling for library closures, Doug Ford got in a
bizarre slanging match
with literary titan Margaret Atwood. Matlow says: “It brought even Rob Ford’s closest allies to a place where they said, ‘Even if I consider myself right wing, I’m not with that guy, because that guy’s just out of whack with reality.’”

Councillors of various stripes quietly worked to identify $15 million in services to save through a motion fronted by Colle. It passed with 23 votes — a bare majority.

“Getting to 23 votes was the goal because at that point you could curb the excesses and the reckless behaviour of the mayor,” Fletcher says. “That was the watershed moment. It was only $15 million in a $9 billion budget, but it was libraries, pools in certain wards, a priority centre — it was many things that made up the quality of life for the people of Toronto.”

Minnan-Wong, who voted against the package, says the Fords alienated allies the previous fall by threatening to sic “Ford Nation” on them at election time if they failed to fall in line.

Robinson says: “There’s multiple layers to this whole term and the ‘culture of fear’ is one of them.”

TRANSIT WARS

City council went against Rob Ford's wishes and backed a transit plan put forward by Karen Stintz, Feb. 8, 2012. (Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star)

Ford’s early declaration that the Transit City light-rail plan was “dead” withered when he failed to produce a subway funding plan. Refusing to compromise, but offering no reasonable alternative, he drove TTC chair
and erstwhile enemies into each other’s offices to draft
a new plan
that reverted to LRT while leaving a door open to Ford’s cherished Scarborough subway.

“In the absence of leadership from the mayor’s office, you had (politically diverse councillors) Karen Stintz,
and
working together,” says Colle, adding that early demands he “join a team” — council’s left or right — disappeared.

Minnan-Wong sees it differently. “The left used Karen Stintz to undermine the mayor’s transit plans. They used her and the votes she could get to wound the mayor,” he says.

CRACK

Mayor Rob Ford returns to his office after a council vote that stripped him of much of his power, Nov. 18, 2013. (David Cooper/Toronto Star)

The Star’s revelations that Ford had substance-abuse issues dominated the last half of the term, a scandal of international fascination that peeled away allies and left him, ultimately,
a mayor in title only
. “When the crack story breaks, the wheels come off — and that’s it,” Minnan-Wong says of Ford’s agenda.

Robinson says she and fellow rookies were “learning the ropes during the greatest political show on Earth.”

THE LEGACY

Much obviously depends on who is elected Toronto mayor Oct. 27. Matlow says council was extraordinarily productive this term, “but I think we can be even more productive and efficient if there is leadership that provides a clear vision.”

Fletcher says Ford’s reign exposed the urban-suburban divide, and “maybe we need to devolve a lot more powers to community councils rather than think everything should be harmonized as one city.”

Colle hopes the next mayor delivers on Ford’s promise to improve customer service and remove red tape.

Robinson says Toronto’s international reputation needs to be restored. “Business leaders are embarrassed,” she says.

Minnan-Wong calls this term a huge “squandered” opportunity to make fiscally prudent change at city hall. Still, he says, “if we get a new mayor, we will turn the page pretty quickly and this will fade into the rear-view mirror.”

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